Millions of people in the U.S. suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with a prevalence of 20-30% in men and 10-15% in women. OSA is a condition where the upper airway collapses during sleep and significantly limits or obstructs air entry into the lungs. The mainstay of treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). This works by simply applying positive air pressure to the upper airway which consists of the nasal passages, mouth, nasopharynx, oropharynx, and hypopharynx. CPAP pressure opens the upper airway, allowing the sleeper to breathe easily without intermittent obstruction and interruption of airflow into the lungs.
CPAP pressure is delivered via a mask applied over the nose (nasal mask) or over the nose and mouth (full face mask) with air pressure tubing running from the mask to a CPAP machine. A good mask seal is desirable as high leak rates from air escaping around the sides of the mask are uncomfortable and may disrupt sleep. High leak rates may also cause CPAP treatment to be ineffective.
Some sleepers find using a mask at night uncomfortable and so have difficulty sleeping with one. Further, some sleepers will easily fall asleep using a CPAP mask only to discover that sometime during the night it has come off or that they have removed it surreptitiously. These problems clearly make CPAP therapy less effective than it otherwise might be.
A process whereby a more comfortable and effective mask with lower leak rates could be easily manufactured would be a great advancement in the treatment of OSA and other forms of sleep disordered breathing.
Such an advancement would also benefit the manufacture of other medical masks and certain other medical facial apparatus such as oxygen masks used for surgery and in recovery, masks used for delivery of gaseous medicaments, and the like such as for dental or surgical procedures; “nasal pillows”, circumferential fittings for the nasal inlets; additionally, non-medical masks such as snorkeling or diving masks would benefit from increased comfort and a better seal, which would lower the egress rate of water into the mask during use.
Such an advancement would also benefit the manufacture of other articles where differential pressure in contact with the human or animal body can cause discomfort.